System and device for video-based vehicle surrounding awareness monitoring for air cargo transit security under all-weather driving conditions

Abstract

A video-based security system for providing video security to cargo transport vehicle. The security system includes a camera support configured at the exterior of a cargo storage area; a camera system attached to the camera support for covering a top plane, front plane, left plane, right plane, and back plane of a cargo area; and a main unit connecting to the camera system for logging incident records.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A video-based security system for providing video security to cargo transport vehicle comprising:
 a camera support configured at the exterior of a cargo storage area; 
 a video analytics equipment including a camera system attached to the camera support for covering a top plane, front plane, left plane, right plane, and back plane of a cargo area, and for storing a series of images captured by the camera system; 
 a main unit connecting to the camera system for logging incident records, including an intrusion associated with an object entering the top plane, the front plane, the left plane, the right plane, or back plane, from an open area to a secure area; 
 
       wherein the main unit is further arranged to generate spatial parameter of a cargo area which is supposed to be stagnant or undisturbed, the spatial parameter is sent the camera system for filtering a background before processing images captured by the cameras; 
       wherein the main unit comprises a digital signal processor arranged to process the images by perform statistical change detection on the secure area to determine change areas of the secure area in the images captured by the camera system; 
       wherein the main unit is further arranged to perform spatial refinement to detect regions that are homogeneous with respect to one or more chosen features and to perform a local comparison between the background and its adjacent regions belonging to the changed area so as to determine an object of interest using multi-feature clustering; and 
       wherein the main unit is further arranged to determine one or more high-level semantic metadata of the object of interest, thereby to determine the intrusion of the object, upon the object of interest is detected. 
     
     
       2. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the vehicle comprises a prime mover towing a trailer, wherein the trailer has the cargo area adapted to carry cargo. 
     
     
       3. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera support comprising a left exhaust pipe on a left side of the prime mover for attaching a first camera of the camera system, and a right exhaust pipe on a right side of the prime mover for attaching a second camera of the camera system. 
     
     
       4. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera support comprising a left pole on a left side of the vehicle for attaching a first camera of the camera system, and a right pole on a right side of the vehicle for attaching a second camera of the camera system. 
     
     
       5. The video-based security system of  claim 4 , wherein the left pole and right pole are secured to a front end of the trailer. 
     
     
       6. The video-based security system of  claim 4 , wherein the left pole and right pole are configured to provide a front clearance distance from the cargo area of 10 cm to 50 cm. 
     
     
       7. The video-based security system of  claim 6 , wherein each of the left pole and right pole has an adjustable height. 
     
     
       8. The video-based security system of  claim 4 , wherein each of the left pole and right pole has an arm extending horizontally from a top end of the pole, wherein the arm has a length of 10 cm to 50 cm. 
     
     
       9. The video-based security system of  claim 8 , wherein the arm has an adjustable length. 
     
     
       10. The video-based security system of  claim 4 , wherein each of the left pole and right pole is rotatable. 
     
     
       11. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera support comprising an extension for attaching a third camera of the camera of the camera system at a back side of the vehicle. 
     
     
       12. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera system comprises one or more cameras having lens with angles of view between 110 to 220 degrees. 
     
     
       13. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera system comprises one or more cameras adapted to capture image covering fields of view of 160 to 360 degrees. 
     
     
       14. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera system comprises a camera having multiple sensors. 
     
     
       15. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the camera system is in communication with the main unit to process images captured by the camera system, wherein the main unit is adapted to communicate to a server. 
     
     
       16. The video-based security system of  claim 2 , wherein the main unit and the server are adapted to carry out the process comprising steps of:
 defining a security zone of an image captured by the camera system; 
 detecting any object projecting into, out of, or within the security zone; 
 logging an incidence event record on a storage device on the main unit. 
 
     
     
       17. The video-based security system of  claim 16 , wherein a security zone is defined by identifying the cargo area on the top plane, front plane, left plane, right plane, and back plane. 
     
     
       18. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein each of incident records a secured record comprising one or more of attributes of a truck ID, a time-tag, a duration time, a geospatial-tag, continuous time-tagged geospatial data, video clip, and an incident description. 
     
     
       19. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the main unit is adapted to trigger a light indicator for any detected intrusion. 
     
     
       20. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the main unit is adapted to communicate with an on-site server for reviewing all incident records stored in the main unit to decide whether to issue intrusion-free clearance comprising a signer ID, a signing time-tag to the main unit. 
     
     
       21. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the main unit is adapted to communicate with a server for transmitting an incident record in real time for alerting a user through a web application or mobile application. 
     
     
       22. The video-based security system of  claim 21 , wherein the main unit is adapted to communicate with a server for transmitting video clip in real time for reviewing and verifying the truthfulness of intrusion. 
     
     
       23. The video-based security system of  claim 22 , wherein the server is arranged to identify a human intruder and to carry out facial recognition to identify whether the human intruder is an authorized person. 
     
     
       24. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the camera system is adapted to perform image stabilization via optical image stabilization or electronic image stabilization. 
     
     
       25. The video-based security system of  claim 1 , wherein the camera system comprises one or more image sensors that contain two, or more, types of pixels, with different light sensitivities to generate a single image by merging images captured by the image sensors with different exposure times.